Michigan revisited

A male Brewer's blackbird sings from an old jack pine snag. I found a small colony of about ten birds breeding in Kirtland's warbler country, in northern Montmorency County, Michigan.

I'm up here for about my tenth year in a row, leading natural history trips from NettieBay Lodge in the incredibly biodiverse Presque Isle County, Michigan. We've got a great group and have been having lots of fabulous observations. Yesterday we explored Lake Huron habitats, and today it was the jack pine country on the other end of the county. We're over 110 species of birds thus far, and many interesting mammals, plants, insects, and more.

A burly porcupine comes at your narrator. I came up two days before the group, to scout. I had great luck with porkies, and have seen about eight so far. This one was very approachable.

Last night's excursion was epic, with common nighthawks doing their booming display over the young jack pine country, several close range eastern whip-poor-wills singing, and displaying American woodcock, all in earshot of each other.

I'll probably have some more posts and pics from northern Michigan.